BC Government Won't Pay Portion Of Victoria Infrastructure Project

A computer-generated rendering shows the changes announced by the provincial government for BC Place Stadium, including a retractable roof.Photograph by: Vancouver Sun files, .

The provincial Liberal government has so far refused to explain why they are able to pick up the full tab of a nearly half-billion dollar retractable roof for B.C. Place in downtown Vancouver, but won’t pay the one-third share of the replacement of the $63-million Johnson Street Bridge in Victoria. Federal Transport Minister John Baird was on hand October 23 in Victoria to make the announcement that the government will be funding one-third of the cost. But missing from the event were any Liberal MLAs, and the province seems to have so far ignored the issue.

The federal funding comes to a region that falls under the representation of NDP MP Denise Savoie, who is pulling in a large chunk of the cash during a federal controversy that the Conservative government is playing “pork barrel” politics by disproportionately funding Tory ridings throughout Canada. But the funding will not be a part of the stimulus program, as was initially believed, but from the Building Canada Fund. Mr.Baird explained that the reason for this is that the project would have had to be completed by March of 2011 in order to qualify for the short-term stimulus project, and the Building Canada Fund provides a more flexible 7-year window of opportunity.

This leaves the city of Victoria to deal with all $42 million of the remaining costs on it’s own, forcing the municipality to come up with a very large amount of money for an essential project. The state of the 85-year-old bridge is in disrepair and some people believe it could soon become unsafe. But while the province won’t be funding the replacement of the bridge, everybody in the province will be helping to build the new $458-million retractable roof at B.C. Place in Vancouver.

The benefits to a retractable are somewhat dubiously explained by the provincial government, who have established a pattern of behaviour of funding large construction projects, and their inevitable cost overruns. The main tenants of B.C. Place are the Vancouver White Caps soccer team and the B.C. Lions, and neither are likely to generate enough local trickle-down revenue to really recoup the investment. The government believes that the new roof will attract new venues and concerts. But if one were to look at the success of the Skydome in Toronto, it could give pause to the idea.

The Skydome [now called the Rogers Centre] was built for $600 million, and received funding from all tiers of government and private enterprise. A year after it opened, it was determined that the Skydome was losing so much money that it would have to be booked 600 days a year just to break even. The stadium, completed in 1989 with a $165 million debt, ballooned to $400 million by 1993.

The new B.C. Place retractable roof could face similar problems of cost overruns as the unstable prices of the construction industry can send a major project like this well beyond the initial budget. The government notes that it is only loaning the money to it’s crown subsidiary, B.C. Pavilion Corporation. But the public company plans to repay the loan by leasing the land it controls around the stadium for development, even though this land belongs to the crown. Hence, it really belongs to all of us. In effect, Gordon Campbell’s government will be loaning itself our money, and then repay it by leasing land that already belongs to all of us.

The two Liberal MLAs for the Victoria region, Murray Coell and Ida Chong, have not explained to their constituents why they aren’t fighting to get their provincial riding the essential infrastructure upgrade it sorely needs. This leaves Victoria in the embarrassing position of having to ask permission from the province to borrow a record $42-million to replace the bridge. Victoria city council has sent a new bylaw for the loan, which if given provincial permission, would trigger a counter-petition for Victoria residents. If 10% of the registered voters sign the petition, a municipal referendum must be held.

Such a referendum could cost the city as much as $150,000. The reason the province can ignore any responsibility to one-third funding is because ultimately it did not meet the criteria for the federal stimulus program. That leaves the city of Victoria on the hook for two-thirds of the cost, even though the same taxpayers in that city will also pay their share of replacing the roof at B.C. Place. When the displacement of priorities at the provincial level are such that the capital city of the province is left in a shortfall of funding basic infrastructure upgrades, you know that voters are going to notice and remember the next time Murray Coell and Ida Chong are on a ballot.

Raphael is a freelance contributor to the National Post, and blogs from Vancouver.

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